Speaking from his gated £2 million ($3.5 million) West Sussex home, he said: “It’s a surprise to me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Today the world lost a wonderful lady.. Sheila Farebrother... Lady F... this lady had an amazing zest for life.. the world will be a sadder place without her presence... R.I.P. Lady F.. my love always.. pic.twitter.com/i0XRHYkHni

Her will was signed on November 10 — 24 days before her death last year on December 4.

The only mention of Sir Elton comes in a brief paragraph that states: “I give to my son Elton John free of all taxes my two Batignani blue/gold urns and my photographs of mother in uniform and grandfather in uniform.”

Farebrother said her son asked her to “drop” Mr Halley when he left his entourage after 30 years.

But she refused saying Mr Halley, 71, was “like a son”.

David Furnish and Elton John in 2017. Picture: GettySource:Supplied

Elton John and David Furnish in 1997 at Elton's belated 50th birthday party. Picture: APSource:AP

In 2015 she said of their row: “He told me I thought more of Bob Halley than I did of my own son. I said to him, ‘And you think more of that f***ing thing you married than your own mother’.”

Farebrother’s open attack on David Furnish led to a savage war of words between mother and son that lasted almost a decade.